Make a donation of $25 or more to Advocates for Youth this week, and we'll send you our new Great American Condom Campaign t-shirt!

The Great American Condom Campaign (GACC) is a youth-led grassroots movement to make the United States a sexually healthy nation.

Each year, Advocates provides more than one million Trojan brand condoms to students who serve as "SafeSites" on college and university campuses across the country. The students distribute condoms, educate their peers about sexual and reproductive health issues, and organize to improve policies that affect young people's health and well-being.

Last year alone, the GACC reached young people at 1,108 public and private universities, trade schools, military schools, religious institutions, and community colleges — many of which have little to no condom access — in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands.

Young People Outraged by Continued Attacks on Birth Control

Statement from Debra Hauser, Executive Director, Advocates for Youth

Today’s announcement from the White House represents a good-faith attempt to balance the critical need for access to birth control coverage with exemptions for religious employers. We support this decision because it keeps the policy focus where it belongs – on women’s health. We will continue to monitor the implementation of this policy to ensure that it benefits all women in the ways the President has outlined.

Young women have much to lose if contraception becomes a political pawn in an election year. They rely on birth control to prevent unplanned pregnancies and for other health reasons. The recent attempts to politicize preventive health care put young women and their health at risk. Along with young people across the country, Advocates for Youth is outraged that a manufactured controversy has turned birth control into a so-called “election year controversy.” Are we seriously having a national debate about birth control?  In 2012?

Now, we will see whether opponents of birth control, both in and out of Congress, will accept “yes” for an answer, or if they will resist this common-sense accommodation offered by the Administration.

by Sarah Audelo, Senior Federal Policy Manager

This year, you have already proven how truly powerful grassroots activists can be. I wish we had time to simply celebrate these victories, but the attacks just keep coming.

After an outpouring of support from activists like you, President Obama and the Department of Health and Human Services announced in January that they are standing strong by no-cost birth control. In that announcement, the administration kept intact a conscience clause for churches. While we believe everyone should have access to basic preventive coverage, the Obama administration has already provided a compromise.

TAKE ACTION: Tell President Obama to stand strong against attacks on birth control coverage. Tell Congress not to undermine women's access to basic health care.

Despite these clear concessions aimed at finding a middle ground, social conservatives are not stopping their relentless attack on access to birth control. Social conservatives — led, as usual, by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops — have decided that if you're a student or employee of a religious affiliated organization, they have the right to deny you any medical coverage they don't agree with.

This view is extreme, but they're making sure people listen. If you look at the media, birth control is suddenly a "controversial issue."

It's 2012. Are we seriously talking about denying women access to birth control? Apparently, we are.

by Trina Scott, Senior Program Manager, Young Women of Color Empowerment

National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day is a national HIV testing and treatment community mobilization initiative targeted at Blacks in the United States and the Diaspora.  Watch and share the video on how young people can get involved and protect themselves, after the jump. We’ll also be tweeting facts and resources throughout the day to #NBHAAD – follow us and re-tweet!  

African Americans/Blacks  experience disproportionate rates of HIV and AIDS.  In their lifetimes, 1 in 16 Black men  and 1 in 32 Black women will be diagnosed with HIV; and African Americans make up 14% of the population but account for 44% of all new HIV infections.

Why the disproportionate rates?

 According to the CDC:

 “ Blacks do not engage in more risky behavior than members of other racial/ethnic populations. Many of the factors that place blacks at higher risk for chronic diseases also place them at increased risk for HIV. For example, social and economic realities prevalent among blacks—such as higher levels of poverty, racial discrimination, limited access to health care and housing, and higher rates of incarceration—are associated with  increased HIV risk.”

In fact, studies have found that African Americans are more at risk for HIV and STIs even when they have the same or fewer risk behaviors.  

So what will turn the HIV epidemic around for African Americans?  It will take a combination of approaches.  That’s why there are four focal points of this year’s NBHAAD: education, testing, involvement, and treatment.